The "Life in the Spirit" seminars fuel the Catholic Charismatic Renewal to bring "Glossalalia" and being "Slain in the Spirit" from Protestantism into Catholicism.

Glossalalia comes from two Greek words, for tongue and speak, and refers to human sounds and utterances that appear to the listener to be either an unknown
(xenoglossia) foreign language, or, completely meaningless syllables
and sounds. Glossalalia is sometimes associated with mental illness;
but most commonly, it is closely associated with religion, and many
diverse religions, including Christianity, exhibit it in some way as
part of organized worship. Within Christianity, and particularly in
America, it is most notable within the Charismatic and/or Pentecostal denominations of Protestantism.

Glossalalia is typified by use of phonics common to the
speaker's native language, but not used to form any proper words in that
language. The recorded glossalalia of Englishmen is phonically distinct from that of Russians, and from other languages, yet each sounds, phonically, vaguely familiar within their own native language group.

The theory, for Christian practitioners, is that they speak in a mystic or Heavenly language, as the Holy Spirit prompts them, and even speaks through them. Skeptics and detractors point to emotionalism of practitioners, with emotions being further heightened by, potentially, religious ecstasy, or, self- or otherwise induced hypnotism, and even the power of suggestion.

The human mind - any human mind - by its very nature, may not be studied objectively, but only very subjectively, by any other human mind or group of human minds. Human consciousness, like unconsciousness, and like the human soul, cannot be empirically studied and tested. It is completely ephemeral and immaterial, does not consist of matter and thus may not be materially examined.

In Protestantism, it began with one Charles Parham in the early 1900s. In Catholicism, it began with the now famous 1976 Duquesne weekend. The similarities of the two events is quite striking.

For details of the history of the movement, go to the Catholic Prayer page. You should read this in conjunction with Paul's instructions in 1 Cor 13 and 14, in which he admonished his listeners to not cause confusion. When the Apostles spoke in tongues they were widely understood by their listeners. Paul admonished tongue-speakers in prayer gatherings to only speak when there was an interpreter present. We have witnessed people praying in tongues; we have never witnessed any of their words being understood, or interpreted, by anyone.

The Catholic Prayer
page goes into the related Scripture, and the history of how
glossalalia came to be, and then came into Catholicism and where the
movement seems to be going; this third-tier linked-to page is just a brief
explanation of the term itself. Hesitation is advised at both ends
of the possible reaction scale: do not condemn it out of hand as
fraudulent, and, do not dive in head first fully expecting something
radical to happen in your soul.

Unless you personally somehow benefit from Divine insight, when you witness glossalalia,
you do not know if what you are witnessing is induced by hysteria,
hypnotism, some form of ecstasy, suggestion, a big act, or if it is
demonic, or, if it is of the Holy Spirit. Which it just might be.

A major factor, if not the major factor, in the Life In The Spirit seminars given within the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement, involves lessons, psychological preparation, coaching and teaching designed to induce or somehow bring about "true" events of glossalalia prayer among participants. And that raises some questions. I note that there were no lessons or coaching involved in the events of the Pentacost, or any other Biblical events involving tongues, or any events of any saints involving glossalalia.

I naturally tend toward skepticism. However, I do not ever want to be
in the position of having spoken or acted against the Holy Spirit. When I see such things, I
would much rather pray that it be true, and keep my mouth shut.

=====

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Pulled the trigger on the 301 MOVE IT option
June 1, 2014. Working my way through all the webpages. .

Regards,

Vic

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may deride it, but in the end, there it is.—Winston
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deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.—Ayn Rand

Atheist Genesis:

In the beginning there was nothing, and nothing happened to nothing.
And then nothing accidentally exploded and created everything.
And then some bits of everything accidentally encountered other bits of everything and formed some new kinds of everything.
And then some bits of everything accidentally arranged themselves into self-replicating bits of everything.
And then some self-replicating bits of everything accidentally arranged themselves into dinosaurs.
See?

“ … for I have sworn upon
the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind
of man.” wrote Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush in
the year of our Lord 1800. The context
involved resistance to any form of Christianity or Deism legally imposing
itself throughout the USA. We must wonder what he might say
about our current government's forced imposition of strict secularism – i.e.,
anti-theism – throughout the USA. I submit that legally enforced secularism of society, like theocracy, like Marxism,
and like Islam, is, precisely, a form of tyranny over the mind of man.Nothing good can come from the religious cleansing of Judaeo-Christian society. Government imposed secularism is just another form of theocracy.